Over Boundaries
by LesAlaska
Summary: Cross between xmen and gakuen alice. In search of her mother and her past, a 13 year-old Mikan abruptly leaves the Academy for America and ends up attending xaviers school. 5 years later sees the alice academy sending its senior class to said school on a whirlwind trip where old friends, foes and flames meet.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Before I start, please take note that this story takes place 8 years after the series so Mikan and the gang are 18. **_

_**Ps: To avoid any confusion, I just want to mention that this fic is something that I am reposting because I have changed some parts. It was first posted in 2010.**_

"Everyone! Please quiet down!" Tobita Yuu yelled, flustered, as he tried to get everyone in his class in order. "Mr. Narumi will be here soon."

"Like we've ever been afraid of him!" a shout came from somewhere in the chaos.

"BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!" Hotaru stood next to Yuu and fired her Baka gun up into the ceiling. The class stopped their loud chatter, the paper airplanes cruised to a stop and the infamous Natsume Hyuuga peaked out over his manga.

"You were saying Yuu," she said in her usual icy monotone.

"Uh…y-yes." He stammered, still shocked and scared as he nervously tugged at his crisp white collar. "Please settle down and take your respective seats because Mr. Narumi will be here soon and he has an announcement to make.

Everyone just stared.

"T-that's all, thank you," he said bowing, straightening only after hearing the shuffling of feet and chairs being dragged on the hardwood floors.

Then as if on cue, Mr. Narumi walked in grinning. His blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail and he was dressed in one of his usual-or unusual-outfits, consisting of a hot pink blazer and matching pants over a frilly, white shirt.

"Good morning class!" he greeted them over-enthusiastically. "As our hardworking chairman may have told you, I have quite an announcement to make."

Some of the class leaned forward in anticipation.

"As sort of a special excursion for the graduating class, namely yours, the principals of Alice Academy have arranged for you to go on a trip to a school in America."

The students sighed and leaned back into their chairs. 'That's it?' most of them thought.

"I haven't finished," Narumi continued as if reading their thoughts. "This isn't any ordinary school. It's a school for people just like yourselves."

Murmurs of 'what's?' and 'cools' along with random questions were thrown around the class and at Mr. Narumi.

"Alright, alright everyone calm down." Mr. Narumi raised his hands up as a signal for the class to hush.

"Yes there are Alice's present in America, and even in other corners of the world. But there they are known as mutants, though I know that doesn't sound pretty. Now I don't want to spoil anything by answering all your questions when you can learn even more from them personally and get to know them better in the process."

"You should have no problem with English since your grades in that subject have been relatively good. You have been given the rest of the day off to pack and get ready for your 2 and a half month stay there before you return to graduate."

"Your parents have already been notified about the trip and you will be joining the students there for classes. Everyone is to meet tomorrow morning at 8 at the main gate so I suggest you hurry and get packing." Narumi finished and the classes rushed out of the classroom eager to get ready. Only a few sauntered behind.

Hotaru fished her cell phone out of her skirt pocket as she walked out of the class, flipping it open to check her mail-none-; no news for the past month. Anna effortlessly peeked over the ice-queens shoulder, being at least half a head taller than her.

"I haven't heard from Mikan in a while either. But it's great that we're finally getting to see the school she's attending. Hopefully we'll be able to meet her."

"Yeah." She flipped her phone shut as Nonoko bounced up to join them.

"C'mon girlies, lets go get packing," she started but all three heads turned when they felt a cold gaze on them. Apparently their conversation on Mikan's whereabouts had not fallen on deaf ears.

Hotaru looked up to see the blonde haired, blue - eyed boy who she had been dating for the past year before linking arms with Anna and Nonoko and walking out of the classroom.

The girls kept silent all the way to the dorms knowing that the boys were a short distance behind them. Only when they heard the extra footsteps fade as the boys turned into their corridor did they resume their conversation.

"How come you haven't told Ruka or Natsume that you have been in touch with Mikan all these years?"

Hotaru shrugged. "Mikan preferred that Natsume remain in the dark. We all know that she may be the same old bubbly, klutzy Mikan but she's wiser and she knows that Natsume may try to find her after her abrupt departure, putting himself in danger."

"And Ruka? You guys were already really close before you started seeing him so we presumed that you had already told him, that's why we didn't," Anna said, looking at Nonoko.

"I'm only human," she replied as the grouped stopped outside her room.

"You don't mean that you still think that Ruka…"

"Don't you?" Hotaru muttered.

"I've seen the way he looks at you sometimes Hotaru," Nonoko started. "Do you really think he still has feelings for Mikan?"

Said girl shrugged. "Keeping this from him isn't exactly something I'm proud of."

"Then talk to him about it."

You know, you suddenly having any form of emotion or opening up feels odd." Anna joked.

"Don't get used to it." Hotaru gave a small, mischievous smile before walking into her room and shutting the door.

Sitting at the foot of her bed, she decided to take Anna's advice and reached into her pocket for her phone. She flipped it open and pressed 2 on the speed dial (one still belonged to her self proclaimed best friend). He answered on the 4th ring.

"Hotaru," he breathed out.

"I think we need to talk."

"Yes we do." She was glad to hear that he still retained his manners. She doubted Natsume would have been as polite if he was the one on the other line.

"I'll meet you in the garden after lunch. You know where."

"Mmm…See you."

"Yes." She heard the dial tone and shut her phone.

She spent the rest of her morning lounging on her bed and supervising her robot invention as it packed her suitcases for her.

Lunch felt like a blur as she silently nibbled at her mac and cheese, animatedly engaging in conversation with Anna and Nonoko here and there.

She excused herself when she saw Ruka stand from his seat on the other side of the dining hall where he had been sitting with Mochi, Kokoryomi, Kitsuneme and the rest of the gang. Apparently Natsume had decided to skip the meal.

Anna and Nonoko smiled knowingly at each other before giving her a nod in understanding. Hotaru weaved her way through the dining hall and out the double doors.

The hallway was quiet and empty except for the sound of her footfalls against the marble floors. Making a left turn, she walked down the front stairs and onto the large academy grounds.

She walked around to the back of the grounds, which were alive with various flowers and plants. There was even a pond where coy's of various sizes swam. The still surface of the water was littered with multi-colored petals that had been blown in from the lush plantation of trees across.

Slowly and steadily, Hotaru made her way across the pond by stepping on the stones that jutted out from the surface, forming a path. Upon reaching the other side, the pushed aside some of the low hanging braches to reveal an arch entwined with vines and creepers, and laced with vibrantly colored flowers.

Underneath it sat an old-styled swing. It consisted of two swinging seats that were molded onto metal bars and built to face each other. Ruka was sitting on one seat, head bowed and hands joined on his lap.

Hotaru moved to sit opposite him, crossing her legs and pretending to examine the metal gratings of the swings platform below her.

"How long have you known where she was?" Ruka finally looked up at her.

"A week after she left. She called me from America and told me," Hotaru replied, eyes still downcast.

"Did she say why?"

"The reason for her abrupt departure was because she had received information that her mother had been sighted in America so she went there with her grandfather to look for her."

"She joined the American equivalent of the Alice Academy while she was there because it was the only way that she could leave. At least the Academy would still be able to keep tabs on her."

"She's also been honing her new skills."

"By new skills you mean her SEC Alice."

Hotaru nodded.

"So did she manage to find her mother?"

"She's come close once or twice but still nothing."

"Did Mikan say that you couldn't tell me any of this?"

The raven-haired girl shook her head.

"She was only completely against telling Natsume because she was afraid that he would do something stupid like go after her."

"I have no doubt on the fact that he would have done exactly that, but Hotaru, you still haven't answered my question."

She tilted her head up a little, peaking through her bangs.

"Keeping this from you is not something I'm proud of, but I did it anyway because I was scared of what would happen if I told you the truth." She finished and looked straight at him. His blue eyes were wide with surprise.

"Did you think that if I knew, I would go after her as well?"

She nodded.

"I can't help but be happy at the fact that you think I would have enough courage to go after her but why did you-or do you-think that I would in the first place."

"I don't doubt that you would have at least tried, and I think you can guess why. The whole senior class could probably guess why."

Hotaru had clenched her fists and looked back down. She really liked Ruka and she was always more open with him. But now that she was voicing her fears while looking straight into the crystal blue of his eyes, it made her feel even more exposed.

"You think I still have feelings for Mikan?"

"Don't you?" Hotaru stood up abruptly, her question coming out as barely a whisper.

Ruka mirrored her movement.

"I did, once." He took a step closer to her, towering over her petite form. Placing his hand under her chin, he tilted her head up so that he could look directly at her.

"But right now, whatever I feel for you trumps whatever feelings I had for her all those years ago." With that he leaned down to brush his lips lightly against hers. Once, twice.

"We better get going. I'm sure you have lots to pack," he said, pulling away.

"My robot's already done packing everything for me and I can always get it to pack for you." Hotaru's lips turned up slightly when she said this, her deep violet eyes holding a mischievous glint.

Ruka smiled and leaned down, covering her lips with his. As he moved his mouth gently over hers, he began moving his right hand down from the small of her back to cup her butt and lift her up easily. Wrapping her legs around his waist, he took a few steps back to sit down on the swing, leaving her to straddle his lap.

"Aren't Anna and Nonoko going to get worried if you're gone too long?" he asked against her lips.

"Doesn't matter right now," she said pulling away slightly to grin at him before wrapping her arms around his neck once more and leaning back to mold her lips against his once more.

_**A/N: Well here's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it and want to keep reading because the next one will be up soon. Reviews and creative criticism are loved and appreciated.**_


	2. Chapter 2

The senior students of the Alice Academy had gathered in the schools driveway as they waited to board the buses that would take them to the airport. The temperature, which had started to plummet over the past few days, had finally stabilized as autumn began showing its true colors.

Hotaru had just finished loading her trunk up into one the luggage compartments and was making her way over to where Anna, Nonoko and Sumire were huddled up by the buses entrance, waiting to alight.

Uniforms were not necessary for this trip so the students were all dressed comfortably in their own clothes.

Hotaru had thrown a black cowl neck sweater dress over some stockings, and a pair of silver flats donned her feet. The boys were mostly dressed in jeans and sneakers with jackets, hoodies or sweaters.

"So Imai, you were running a little late. Got caught up doing something?" Sumire asked cheekily as she peeled off her green pea coat and set it down on her seat before leaning the front of her white blouse on the back of Hotaru's head rest.

The bus rattled slightly as the driver started the engine. Hotaru sat near the front next to Anna while Sumire and Nonoko sat behind them.

"Yes, I did actually." She replied stoically.

"Really, and what did you get caught up doing exactly?" Anna stopped half way as she was pulling her scarf out of her white button down shirt, which had been tucked into an ankle length denim skirt and topped off with calf-high black boots.

"I was in my lab making a suitcase that would be able to carry some of my inventions to America so that I could still work on them there. It had to be compact, yet be able to store bulky items.

"Oh." Sumire's face fell along with those of the two others girls since they did not get the interesting 'make-out' gossip they had been hoping for. They were not surprised however since they knew that Hotaru was not the type of girl to gush about these sorts of things.

"So Natsume, are you looking forward to seeing Mikan again?" Ruka asked the raven-haired boy as he took his seat next to him at the back of the bus and unzipped his navy jacket.

Natsume had slipped into a crimson hoodie and sat low in his seat, staring out the window.

A "Hn." was all Ruka got from him.

"Is that a good 'hn', or a bad 'hn'?"

"Save your post make-out high for someone else Ruka."

"So a bad 'hn' then?" he chuckled, turning back to place his backpack on the floor in front of him.

The face he saw when he turned to look back at Natsume almost made him double over in laughter but he held it in and just smiled at his friend who whipped his head back to resume looking out the window.

-000-

It was the middle of the day in America by the time they neared Xavier's manor. They had landed in JFK at midnight and had spent the night at a luxurious hotel near the airport.

Once everyone was up and ready the next morning, they had taken another large bus off to Westchester. Almost everyone had fallen asleep during the dive and were awakened by Narumi when they were nearing Xavier's manor.

"Alright everyone, we're arriving so it's time to wake up!" he yelled over the bus' microphone, earning grumbles and complaints from the students.

"Now, now, that's not a good attitude to have when we are meeting new people." He waved his finger at them and turned to look out of the bus.

Out of their windows, everyone saw the sign 'Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters'. 'Oo's' and 'ahh's' followed as they stared up at the enormous mansion.

"Alright everyone, please grab your bags and exit the bus!"

Orderly, the students grabbed whatever backpack they had carried onto the bus with them and made their way onto the grounds where the bus driver had already started to unload their luggage's from the compartment.

Once everyone had gotten their luggages, a young, russet skinned woman with short, spiky white hair that had random streaks of grey and black in it greeted them. She was dressed in a low cut, white v-neck sweater, black jeans and a pair of pumps.

"You must be Miss Ororo Munroe." Narumi shook her hand.

"Yes I am but please, call me Storm. And you must be Mr. Narumi."

"I am indeed, it's nice to finally meet one of the X-men."

'X-men?' the Alice academy students began whispering among themselves.

"The pleasure is all mine."

"Uh Mr. Narumi sir, what is an 'X-men?" Kitsuneme asked.

Storm turned to him and smiled. "You will all find out soon enough."

"For now, why don't we get your stuff to your rooms first? All of you will be staying on the same floor. It will be two to a room so I trust that you will be able to deal with finding a roommate."

All of a sudden, cloudy blue streaks burst out in the air and another man joined them. He'd covered his blue, tattooed body with a black shirt, a hat and pair of pants, which had a whole cut into the back to accommodate his tail.

"Everyone, this is Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler. He'll be helping to bring your bags to your floor where you can settle in to your rooms after I've given you a tour of the school. But first I think there is some one who wants to meet you. Come on," she said, opening the front door for them to fill into the mansion.

"Thank you Kurt," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling at him.

"You are velcome, it is no problem," he said to her before disappearing in another cloud of blue and taking all the bags with him.

Storm led them down the spacious hallways, elaborating about how the school had come about.

"Professor Xavier was a mutant himself so he knew what felt like to be shunned by your friends and family which was why he set up this school, as a safe haven for people like us."

"You will find that most of the students here are orphaned or have run away from home. I, together with the late Jean Grey and Scott Summers were the first students that he took in here. He taught us how to use our powers and in turn, we taught the other students."

"Some students who have already finished schooling have also stayed on to help," she continued as she opened one of the doors in the hallway to room where a class was going on.

It did not look like a typical classroom. The ceiling was completely made of glass, allowing sunlight to streak through and give it a warm glow. This also ensured the survival of the multitude of green plants that surrounded the room.

Students sat in tables and chairs that had been lined up in a semi-circle around the white board where a blonde boy stood.

He stopped his lecture when he saw Storm and the Alice academy students at the door, giving them a wave and a smile. The other students in the class swiveled around in their seats to see who it was that he was waving to.

"Everybody, this is Bobby, also known as Iceman. He teaches physics and English so he will be your teacher for those of you who take those classes," she said before closing the door and continuing down the hall.

"Excuse me ma'am, but how come everyone here seems to have a second name?" Kokoryomi asked.

"And you are?"

"Koko."

"Well Koko, some students here wish to leave their pasts behind so they change their names and only refer to themselves as their new ones. There are others who also have a second name because they are part of the group that protects this school and fight for mutant rights. Sometimes they wish to keep their identity hidden from the public."

"It all started off with Jean, Scott and I, a group that the students have affection-ally called the X-men."

"I heard about the mutant war here from some teachers talking in the staff room." Sumire whispered to Hotaru, Anna and Nonoko, although some of the other students listened in as well.

"I did not manage to get everything but all I know is that Jean Grey was unstable and killed Professor Xavier and Scott Summers but someone named Wolverine managed to kill her."

Storm stopped in front of the elevator and pressed the 'down' button.

"That's really sad, but any-who," Nonoko dropped a voice even more so that Narumi would not be able to hear. "This place sounds a lot better than the Alice Academy, I mean freedom wise. I'm actually getting more excited about this."

"I wonder where Mikan is though." Sumire added.

In response, Hotaru checked her phone, but she still had not received anything from the brunette. Shaking her head, she closed her phone with a 'snap' and put in back into her small bag.

"Alright, everyone in." Storm indicated to the open elevator.

As they all filed in, a certain raven-haired boy was wondering the same thing as the girls.

-000-

"Ow! Jeez kid, that's your sixth attempt." A man with spiky black hair and a beard yelled at the brown-eyed girl who had been trying unsuccessfully to take a blood sample from him.

Under her lab coat she wore a white tank top that had been tucked into short turquoise bubble skirt and held at her waist with a black waist belt. This was topped off with a pair of yellow jelly flats. She had ditched her two pigtails so that her hair now came now in waves to her waist and curled at the ends.

"I'm really sorry Logan, but it's just really hard to find a vein with all this adamantium." Mikan untied the elastic and smacked his muscled arm a little to get some blood flowing before retying it to prepare for another try.

"Look at the bright side Logan, you may feel pain but at least you don't bruise." Another brown haired girl laughed from where she stood in front of all the monitors.

She too had brown eyes but her hair was darker than Mikan's though it also came down in waves to the middle of her back. Her white lab coat was unbuttoned and underneath it she wore a bronze turtleneck and jeans with a pair of calf-high buckle boots over it.

"Yeah, ha ha, hilarious. Will you just take the blood already Mikkie?"

"Alright Mr. grumpy puss," Mikan said in one of those tones reserved only for babies, which earned her a growl.

"Mikan…" Logan said sternly.

"Okay, okay, I'm going in, deep breath."

"Any chance of you taking my blood without sounding like I'm having a colonoscopy?

The girl by the computers burst out laughing but Mikan didn't answer. Instead she aimed the needle at his arm, a look of concentration hard on her face.

"Mikan, your taking a blood sample, not giving a heart bypass, you don't need to look like your constipated," said the girl over at the computers.

"Shush Anne, I'm concentrating," she said and plunged her needle down to Logan's arm but her head snapped up when she heard Anne ask 'Hey, are they the Alice Academy students?'

The laboratory they were in had been built in such a way that the upper half of the wall that faced out into the basement hallway was actually a glass window that stretched from one end of the lab to the blue double doors on the other.

The senior class of the Alice Academy stood on the other side of the window but they had probably heard most of the conversations going on in the lab since Storm had opened the double doors and was now standing in the doorway with a smile on her face.

"Jesus Christ!" Logan swore when Mikan's needle came in contact with his bruised but halfway healing skin.

"That's it, forget it," he said, getting off the table that he had been sitting on and pulling the needle out of his arm.

"My age just ain't worth the-" Logan had started complaining but was cut off by Mikan's scream.

"HOTARU!" she yelled as she launched herself at the girl who had moved to stand beside Storm.

To everyone's shock and aw-and even her own-Hotaru stayed where she was instead of firing off her baka gun or moving aside. She even returned the big bear hug that Mikan had given her.

"I really missed you guys!" she said as she gave Hotaru one last squeeze before jumping on Anna, Nonoko and Sumire. While the group was hugging each other, her gaze traveled to find…bingo! Dark crimson eyes bore into hers and she tore her gaze away.

"I thought you would like to see your old friends again so I brought them here as soon as they arrived. I have to be at the White House in an hour and Mr. Narumi here will be joining me as liaison for the Alice Academy but I'm sure I can leave them to you to show them around and get them acquainted," Storm said to Mikan.

"Of course!"

"Alright, I'll see you later then. Thanks for baby sitting Logan."

"Don't push it," he said to her before she walked back to the elevator with Narumi.

Mikan watched Storm and Narumi disappear down the hall before turning back. Anne had returned her attention back to the floor-to-ceiling computer screen and Logan was rubbing his sore arm, which was completely healed now.

The purple and blue bruise, which had started to form after Mikan's multiple attempts at taking blood, was completely gone. His actions made her remember that she had just roughly shoved a needle into his arm.

"Oh gosh Logan, I'm so sorry about that!" she ran back to him and grabbed his arm to inspect it even though there was nothing on it.

"Don't worry about it kiddo," he said, ruffling her hair slightly.

"I'll just go the rest of my life not knowing if I'm 50 years older than my girlfriends or 60." He joked.

"Oh for the love of God." Anne walked over, tied the elastic band around his arm, grabbed the syringe and in one swift motion injected it into his skin and drew out blood.

Pulling it out, she inserted the needle into a corked test tube before placing it back on the table and turning to look at Logan.

"Drama queen," she said to him.

"How did you manage to get it so easily?" Mikan asked.

"Since veins have semi-lunar valves to prevent the backflow of blood, I just ran a minute electrical pulse backwards through his bloodstream in the blood vessels in his arm and when it hits a blockade, I know it's a vein." Anne answered.

"Why didn't you just do that from the start?" Logan asked, slightly pissed.

"Where's the fun in that?" Anne laughed.

Logan snorted. "Right, I'll be off so call if you need me," he said as he slid his arms into his leather jacket and walked out.

"Please, don't need me."

"We'll try our best," Anne grinned before turning back to pick up the test tube containing Logan's blood.

She leaned in close to Mikan's ear as she labeled it and pretended to fiddle with it for a bit before putting it on the test tube rack that sat on the frosted glass surface

"So are you going to talk to him or not, that Natsume guy? I have to say though, he looks a lot hotter than he did in that photo of him from when you were kids."

Mikan threw her a look.

"What? I can ogle can't I?" Anne shrugged.

"I honestly don't know what to say to him right now, considering I just up and left. It's highly possible that he hates me."

"Sweety, there is no way he hates you, especially after every thing the two of you have been through. Don't dwell on it now. You should be happy that you're back with your friends," Anne said as she slid out of her lab coat. Mikan followed suit and slipped into her navy bomber jacket.

"Yeah, I guess your right. C'mon, I want you to meet them." Mikan grabbed Anne's hand and pulled her to the door.

_**A/N: That's it for this chapter. Sorry it took so long to update. I hope you enjoy and remember; reviews and creative criticism are always loved and appreciated.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice.**_

"_Yeah, I guess your right. C'mon, I want you to meet them." Mikan grabbed Anne's hand and pulled her to the door. _

"Everybody!" she shouted out to her classmates. "This is Anne Delaney, also known as Radical."

"Hi." Anne greeted them with a wave.

Mikan introduced her to her closest friends first before moving on to the rest of her classmates. Unsurprisingly and much to his chagrin, Natsume was the last to be introduced and Mikan seemed to run his name over her tongue as quickly as she possibly could.

"So you have an Alice as well?" Kitsuneme asked Anne.

"Yup."

"And what is it?"

Anne just gave him a small smile. "I'm still figuring it out."

"Do you have another name as well Mikan?" Anna asked.

"Nah, I couldn't really decide on one so I just stuck with - Oh my gosh Grit!" Mikan practically screamed over Anna's shoulder.

Everyone turned to see a figure walking down the halls toward in their direction. The hood of his black jacket had been pulled over his head and his hands were stuffed into the pockets.

When he heard Mikan's shout, he pulled one of his hands out and pushed his hood back to short black hair that curled slightly, bright green eyes, and a slightly bruised face.

"Well hello tall, dark and just plain old gorgeous. Bruised, but still so-"

"Sumire!" Nonoko yelled at her under her breath and nudged the girl with her elbow.

"What?" she breathed, shrugging her shoulders and smiling innocently. Nonoko just shook her head and sighed.

"Oh gosh what happened to your face?" Mikan exclaimed, grabbing his face with both hands and turning it left and right as if to examine the damage.

"Wait, where's Kitty?" she asked again before he could answer, looking past him for the girl in question.

"Looks like your attention span hasn't improved idiot." Hotaru murmured, but smiled slightly.

"She went to look for Logan." He finally managed to get in his answer and spoke with a slight Russian accent.

"Oh…but gosh! I thought you two just went to break a kid out of a dingy orphanage. How did you bruise your face and…is your nose broken?"

"Yeah, but Kitty ran out first holding onto his hand and I was holding on behind. He let go halfway through and unfortunately I ended up running into the wall"

Mikan and Anne looked at each other briefly before breaking out in loud guffaws.

"Alright, laugh it up." The corner of his mouth lifted slightly and Sumire dramatically threw her hand over her forehead causing the few girls around her to giggle.

"That's not the only unfortunate thing you ended up with." Anne said to Grit.

"You're making it too easy." He chuckled down at her Anne since he towered over her at 6 ft 2, two inches taller than Natsume.

When Mikan finally managed to stop laughing, she raised her hands to his face again.

"Hold still."

Her hands started to glow gold and the bruises slowly began to fade. Anne's eyes happened to skim over the crowd and land on Natsume whose eyes were narrowed, and his lips pulled in a tight line. They moved back when she heard a click sound and a deep groan.

"Thanks." He mumbled, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Oh right," Mikan said, turning back to her classmates.

"Guys, this is Dominik Belikov, also called Grit."

"You can just call me Dom."

"It was nice to meet you and all, but I have to take off. I'll see you around," he said to the Alice Academy group.

"Coming Anya?" he looked back at Anne.

"Yup."

"No." Mikan almost yelled, grabbing Anne's hand and moving herself close enough so that she wouldn't be heard. She prayed hard that Koko wouldn't repeat every word she said or she might just punch his face in-or at least try.

"I need someone here to protect me."

"Protect you? What? Mikan, what are you talking about?"

"My friends are definitely going to try to get me to talk to Natsume and considering that he hates me, I don't really want to."

"And I won't?"

"True but-"

"Sweetie, he doesn't hate you. Right now, I think he probably hates Dom." She laughed lightly.

"Huh?"

"Never mind; your friends love you and you miss them so just spend time together with them and if they push you to him, it might be for the best because you'll have to talk to him soon okay?"

Mikan nodded.

"Good, I'll see you later," Anne let go of Mikan's hand and waving goodbye to the rest of the group, took off after Dominik who had already started halfway down the hall.

"So you guys want to see the rest of the place?" Mikan moved to link her arm with Hotaru's, feeling more secure from the eyes that she felt burning a whole into her.

"Hell yeah!" one of her classmates answered.

"Yeah this place is awesome." Another one said. "This whole underground thing is cool."

"You haven't seen anything yet. C'mon," she said, leading them further down the hall.

She stopped at a pair of large, metal double doors and placed her thumb on the scanner off to the right. The large doors shook slightly before sliding off to the sides with moderate creaking sounds to reveal a hanger.

It had an extremely high concrete ceiling and a spacious floor to accommodate the big, black jet that was sitting in the middle. Off toward the side of it was a small, white helicopter with black stripes across it.

"You guys have a jet?" Ruka asked, slightly awed.

"Yup." Mikan nodded. "It's been here since before the professor died but we just brought in the chopper a year ago."

"Can we ride in it?" Mochu asked.

"Ano," Mikan said, breaking into Japanese out of habit. "I can't make any promises." She smiled as sweetly as she could and twirled a lock of hair around her finger absent-mindedly.

"Let's just say that the last time I tried to fly it, I almost crashed. Though I managed to stop it, it was badly damaged and Anne was really pissed off that she had to fix it up again."

"So you actually flew this thing?" one of her classmates asked.

"Tried would be more appropriate; and failed…horribly."

"Were you badly injured?" Anna asked.

"Not really. I barely even took off. The jet got a few meter's off the ground before it came back down so the landing gear was completely spoiled."

Mikan heard someone let out a long breath from somewhere in the group but she ignored it and reached back to wave her hand over another scanner that closed the hanger doors.

"C'mon, there's still a lot to see. Then we can go get some dinner."

"Yeah! I'm hungry." Kokoryomi practically shouted.

"Aren't you always?" Sumire murmured.

"What can I say, I'm a growing boy." He joked and laughed with a few of his friends, hi-hiving them.

Sumire just crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes.

"Boy is right."

"Get a room you two!" Mochu shouted which caused Sumire to huff and blush slightly while Kokoryomi smiled sheepishly and scratched the top of his head. The other boys laughed it up.

"Erm, are those two dating?" Mikan leaned over to ask Nonoko as the group walked back down the halls in the direction of the elevators

"Not exactly," Nonoko whispered. "They just quarrel like a married couple."

"Ah…right." Mikan giggled.

They reached the elevator at the end of the hall and Mikan reached out a hand to press the 'up' button. The elevator doors opened and Mikan moved in first so as to hold the doors open from the inside.

For a split second nobody moved in. Only until Natsume strolled past everyone and into the lift to stand behind Mikan did the group begin to file in.

If this had taken place a couple of years back, Mikan would not have had a single inkling of what was going on. However, now she had a feeling that her classmates were up to something.

She knew that it had to do with Natsume and her. They were probably trying to get the two of them to start some _semblance_ of a conversation, but she just didn't feel ready to explain everything to him yet. She planned to do it-of course she did-but she wanted to do it at her own time, and on her own terms.

Once everyone was in the lift, she hit the button for the ground floor and closed the lift doors.

'So begins the longest elevator ride of my life.' Mikan thought as the silver doors began to shut.

Indeed it did feel like an eternity with Natsume's breath tickling her neck and the soft scent of his cologne filling her nostrils. It truth, she did sort of miss him a little.

Despite the cold and arrogant front that he always put up, she knew that he was a good person and cared deeply for those close to him.

As much as she wanted to spill her guts out to him, a part of her was afraid of the reaction that she might get because no matter how much she hated to admit it, he could break her heart.

The elevator doors finally opened and Mikan stepped out into the carpeted hall, feeling slightly more at ease. She brought them around the main mansion, showing them the different classrooms where classes were conducted, though they didn't look like typical classrooms at all.

She also brought them to the professor's office, which now served as Storm's. Next she brought them out to the grounds where a few students were playing ultimate Frisbee on a large, green, field that had yet to yellow like the tress around them were beginning to do.

Their final destination was the garage, which Mikan opened by waving her hand over the sensor next to the garage doors. The doors rose upwards smoothly to reveal a large room with neat lines of cars and motorbikes. The jaws of all the boys hit the floor.

"I'm in heaven." Kokoryomi breathed.

Mikan laughed. "I guess this _is_ what boys would call heaven."

The other girls joined in her laughter.

"Anyway this is where we keep all our cars and bikes," she said, leading them inside.

"And sometimes you can even find people making out on the couch," she continued, indicating a corners of the sun bathed room which was decorated with two black leather couches set at right angles to each other, a few plush bean bags and a small LCD screen with a Wii gaming console.

It was obvious that there were two people sprawled out on the couch in heated lip lock but the only thing visible to the Alice Academy students was a patch of blonde as well as long brunette hair which hung over the side of the couch.

When they heard Mikan's voice, the two people broke apart and turned to look in the direction of the group The blonde hair appeared to belong to Bobby, whom they had met earlier that day.

The person to whom the brunette hair belonged to sat up further to look over the back of the couch, pushing Bobby into a sitting position. It was now apparent that her hair was not all brown but had a streak of white down her fringe.

"Are these the guys from the Alice Academy?" she asked Bobby, who nodded.

"Hi, I'm Marie." She greeted them with her usual twang.

"Sorry you had to meet me this way, I'm usually a bit more civilized."

Bobby coughed.

"If you excuse us." Marie ignored him. "We'll be taking our business someplace else." She smiled, taking his hand and leading him out a corner door.

"That's Marie and Bobby by the way." Mikan pointed at the door to which the couple had just exited.

"We met Bobby earlier on today." Sumire told her.

"Yes, and Storm told us that he also called himself Iceman so we take it he has an ice Alice?" Anna continued.

"Pretty much."

"What is that girl's Alice?" Nonoko asked.

"Her powers allowed her to steal the life force from people by touching them or in the case of mutants-or Alice's-temporarily borrow their powers."

"Like your copy Alice." Kokoryomi interjected.

"Something like that, but I don't have to touch a person for this to take place. However, she had to and this prohibited her to have human contact as she could end up killing the person."

"Why are you talking about her Alice in the past tense?" Hotaru asked, always the intuitive one.

"She doesn't have it anymore." Mikan explained.

"How come?" Nonoko asked.

"Erm, it's kind of hard to explain." She paused, placing a finger on her chin as if mulling over something in her head. "Maybe it's better if I show you."

"C'mon," she said, linking her arm through Hotaru's again, wondering how far she could push her best friend until the baka gun showed itself. It had probably been upgraded to 6.0 or something.

"There is one more person you should meet. He's like me…in a way."

_**A/N: Thank you for those who reviewed the previous chapter and I hope that everyone who read it enjoyed it. Here is the next one!**_


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